Well-disposed towards all, when someone does not act as they should, [the transcendent man] points it out through his own correct attitude, thus correcting them without words.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Zhuang Zi
Zhuangzi (c. 369 – c. 286 BC) was an influential Chinese philosopher who lived around the 4th century BC during the Warring States period, a period corresponding to the summit of Chinese philosophy, the Hundred Schools of Thought. He is credited with writing—in part or in whole—a work known by his name, the Zhuangzi.
Superior knowledge [...] springs from his eyes and penetrates with his gaze; words could not express it.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
The most lamentable of deaths is the death of the heart; it is far worse than the death of the body.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
The man whose heart is alive acts upon other living hearts, like the sun which gives life to the world.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
One must not grieve over the cessation of personality as if it were a misfortune. [...] The physical self has ceased to be [...] but the transcendent self remains.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Life develops towards a goal, death is a return to a destination. Genesis follows genesis without end, without our knowing their origin or seeing their term.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
He who is one with this unity [...] regards his body as he would dust, and life and death as he would day and night.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Springs gush forth naturally. The superior man is so spontaneously. The sky is high, the earth is thick, the sun and moon are bright, all this without a formula.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
They announce, by their attire, that they know the things of heaven and earth [...]. They wear the costume, without knowing the thing itself.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
One only succeeds on the condition of letting one's nature act. Constraint prevents success.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
This [...] is the shooting of a shooter, of a man who wants to shoot, of a man who knows he is shooting (art, not nature).
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
The superior man gazes into the depths of the azure sky, into the depths of the terrestrial abysses, [...] without his vital spirits being in the least disturbed.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
My position was not my self, my self was not my position. Favor and disfavor were attached to my position, not to my self.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
The ruin of [Fan] did not take my life. It is not certain that the prosperity of [Tch'ou] will preserve yours.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
If we place ourselves in the heights, above the turning wheel, [one country] is not destroyed, [another] is not prosperous. Everything [...] passes through the two phases of ruin and prosperity.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
The man who has reached this point cares as little for praise as for blame. He knows how to rise like a dragon, and to flatten himself like a serpent, bending to circumstances, not clinging to any preconceived notion.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
After condensation, dissipation; after success, ruin. Strength invites attack, elevation attracts criticism, [...] nothing is stable or lasting.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Consider the fox, the leopard. [...] they always end up perishing in a net or a trap. Why? Because of their beautiful fur, which men covet.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
They produce, but do not hoard; they give, without demanding anything in return. Among them, there is neither etiquette nor ceremony.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Consider a ferry crossing a river. If an empty, drifting boat happens to bump into it, [...] the ferrymen will not get angry, because no person has come into conflict with them, the boat being empty.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
A man who has learned to divest himself even of his personality can travel the entire world without experiencing conflict.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Does not the adage say: chiseling and polishing are not as good as letting nature act. [...] I let people do as they would, spontaneously, as nature operates.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
The straightest tree will be the first to be cut down. The well with the sweetest water will be the first to run dry. Your knowledge scares the ignorant, your enlightenment offends the fools.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
To boast is to close the way to fortune; if one already has merits and renown, it is to attract dispossession. To efface oneself, to hide in the crowd, that is security.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
[Interest] is a weak bond, which misfortune unties. Whereas nature is a strong bond, which withstands all trials. The same goes for self-interested friendship and transcendent friendship.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
The superior man, rather cold, attracts; the common man, though warm, repels. Connections that do not have a profound reason for being, come apart as they were made.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Pardon, king, [...] poverty, not distress. The scholar who possesses the knowledge of the Principle and its action is never in distress.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Hunger, thirst, cold, heat, [...] all this is included in the cosmic evolution, in the law of transformations; every man therefore encounters these things on his path, and must resign himself to them.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
[The beautiful one], knowing she is beautiful, strikes a pose, which makes us deliberately ignore her beauty; while [the ugly one], knowing she is ugly, effaces herself, which makes us deliberately ignore her ugliness.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
To excel, without making one's excellence felt, that is the conduct that makes one loved everywhere.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
The appearance of Sages causes the appearance of brigands, and the disappearance of Sages causes the disappearance of brigands. Sages and brigands, these two terms are correlative, one calls for the other [...].
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Let a poor devil steal a belt buckle, and he will be beheaded. Let a great brigand steal a principality, and he will become a lord [...].
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Pulverize jade and pearls, and there will be no more thieves. Burn the contracts, break the seals, and men will become honest again.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
They were happy with their primitive and peaceful customs in their poor dwellings. [...] They died of old age before having visited the neighboring principality, which they had seen from afar all their lives [...].
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
It is artificial, unnatural science that has caused all the evils of this world, and the misfortune of all who inhabit it.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Preoccupied with learning what they do not know [...], men unlearn what they know (the natural truths of common sense).
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
One must let the world run its course, and not claim to govern it. Otherwise, corrupted natures will no longer act naturally [...].
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
The human heart is such that any oppression brings it down, and any excitement lifts it up. [...] Proud of its freedom, and letting no one bind it, such is the human heart by nature.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
To impose on the people what they please to call their experience, is that not worse than abandoning them to themselves?
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Books are merely assemblages of words. Words convey ideas. But true ideas derive from a non-sensible principle, and can hardly [...] be expressed in words.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
When I make a wheel, if I go about it gently, the result will be weak; if I go about it forcefully, the result will be massive; if I go about it, I know not how, the result will conform to my ideal [...]. It's a knack that cannot be expressed.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
The saying, 'he who knows little thinks himself great,' applies to me. [...] I was right to come and be instructed, otherwise the truly wise would have ended up laughing at me.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Supreme goodness [...] consists in not loving. [...] Supreme goodness is abstract, global, undifferentiated benevolence, which is not contrary to concrete benevolence [...].
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Almost everyone receives their ideas ready-made and follows public opinion their whole life. [...] Servile imitators, who say yes or no according to how they've been prompted, and then believe they have decided for themselves.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
To know neither displeasure nor pleasure, that is the apex of virtue; to be always the same, without alteration, that is the apex of peace; to be attached to nothing, that is the apex of emptiness [...].
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
He preferred the care of his life to the care of the empire. How much more would he have preferred the care of his life to lesser cares?
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
I live thus, without attachment, between heaven and earth, satisfied and content. Why should I burden myself with the empire?
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
He who understands the respect due to life exposes his own neither for the love of wealth nor for the horror of poverty. [...] Whereas the common person exposes themselves lightly for a tiny, insignificant profit.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Your life is worth even more than your two hands, [...] So why do you make yourself sick with sadness, to the point of compromising your life, for such an insignificant object?
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
For the disciple of the Principle, the essential thing is the preservation of one's life. [...] The common men of this age, on the contrary, compromise their lives for their own interests; it is lamentable!
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Before doing anything, a true Sage examines the goal and chooses the means. [...] they expose such a precious object for such a minimal and uncertain result. In reality, they do even worse, for the life they expose is more precious.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
To lack possessions is to be poor. To know and not to do, that is to be unhappy. I am very poor; I am not unhappy.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
To act to please the world, [...] to study to be admired, to teach to get rich, to dress up in a disguise of goodness and equity [...] these are things I will never bring myself to do.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Whoever holds to their freedom must renounce the comforts of the body. Whoever holds to their life must renounce dignities. Whoever holds to union with the Principle must renounce all attachment.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
He who has modest tastes does not create trouble for himself; he who is concerned only with his inner progress is not affected by any deprivation.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
To react violently against an invincible feeling is to inflict a double wear upon oneself: the pain, plus the reaction. None who do so live long.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
As long as a Sage's doctrine has not been refuted, it is not over for him. [...] My doctrine is irrefutable, and I will not deviate from it for any persecution.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
The ancients who possessed the science of the Principle were equally content in success and in failure. For success and failure were equally indifferent to them.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
To dethrone an emperor is to lack equity; to kill his subjects is to lack goodness; to profit from the crimes of others would be to lack decency.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
In the past, the ancients served in times of order, and withdrew in times of disorder. [...] It is better to withdraw to remain pure, than to be soiled by contact with usurpers.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Praise is only valuable when it comes from a third party.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
He who has not gotten to the bottom of things, however ancient he may be, is not in my eyes an authority [...].
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
There is a word without words... Sometimes there is no need for words...
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Some have spoken all their lives without saying anything... Some, who were silent their whole lives, have spoken a great deal.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
It is so, because it is so; it is not so, because it is not so.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Beneath the multiple [...] distinctions, beneath the incessant [...] transformations, [...] lies a hidden law, [...] nature.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
To do well, man must follow his natural instinct.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
[...] even attachment to parents is against pure nature, since it causes pleasure or sorrow.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
After three years, I lost the sense of me and you.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
After eight years, I ceased to be preoccupied with life and death.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
It is activity during life that causes death. [...] Life and death are common things. Is there any reason to be so concerned about them?
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Knowing nothing of the beginning and the end, can we know whether or not the world is governed by a law [...]?
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
I am this way, without knowing why. I am, like the husk from which a cicada has emerged, [...] an accessory, a thing having no existence of its own.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
The disciple of wisdom is as if confused, however blameless he may be, and feels his inadequacy, however advanced he may be.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Just as rest clarifies water, so it enlightens the vital spirits, among them intelligence.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
The heart of the Sage, perfectly calm, is like a mirror, reflecting heaven and earth, all beings.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Emptiness, peace, contentment, apathy, silence, a global vision, non-intervention; this whole is the formula of the influence of heaven and earth, of the Principle.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
From peace emanate the speculations of the great Sages and the actions of the great kings; non-intervention brings fame; abstraction raises one above all.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Harmony with men is human joy [...]; harmony with heaven is celestial joy, supreme happiness.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Oh my Master! [...] You who destroy without being wicked! You who build without being good! You who were before time, and are not old!
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
For every solution, [the ancients] addressed the root, the origin, the Principle that contains them all; and it is this high-level view that made their government superior.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Stop trying to forcibly introduce your artificial virtues that are contrary to nature.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
I have rid myself of all desire to be called learned [...]. Whether what they say is true or false, to let men speak is to spare oneself the trouble of answering them.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
When he governs, the superman does not bother with details [...]. He only deals with the handle [...], and avoids getting in contact with affairs. From on high, his gaze dominates everything.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Books are but assemblies of words. Words convey ideas. But true ideas derive from a non-sensible principle, and can hardly be better expressed in words than it can.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Those who know nature do not try to express it in words; and those who try, thereby show that they do not know.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
When I make a wheel, [...] if I go at it, I know not how, the result will be in line with my ideal [...]. It's a knack that cannot be expressed.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
I couldn't teach it to my son, and at seventy years old, to have a good wheel, I still have to make it myself.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
The deceased Sages [...], were they able to deposit their knack, their genius in their writings? If not, the books you read are [...] but the detritus of the ancients.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Could there be a way of teaching without words, an intangible process for shaping hearts?
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Life and death being equally indifferent to him, the collapse of the universe would cause him no emotion.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
He lets all beings evolve according to their destinies, and stands, himself, at the still center of all destinies.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
There are two ways of looking at beings; either as distinct entities, or as all being one in the great whole.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Mental stillness attracts those who seek wisdom, just as still water attracts those who wish to see their reflection. No one goes to see their reflection in running water.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
It is immutability that characterizes the Sage in the midst of the crowd.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
[The spirit of the Sage is] superior to heaven, to earth, to all beings, dwells in a body to which it is not attached, [...] and knows everything through global knowledge in its motionless unity.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Dust does not cling to a perfectly clear mirror; if it clings, it is because the mirror is damp or greasy.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Heaven and earth give themselves to all beings, whoever they may be, without distinction. I thought you were like them.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
The superior man considers worries to be handcuffs and shackles.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Why [...] did you not take advantage of your meeting with him to tell him plainly that life and death are one and the same thing; that there is no distinction between yes and no?
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
In the body of Tuo the Ugly, there lived a perfect latent virtue. It was this virtue that drew people to him, despite the repulsive form of his body.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Death and life, [...] success and failure, poverty and wealth [...] these are the alternating vicissitudes of which fate is made. One must disregard these things; do not let them penetrate the palace of the mind.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Standing in his field of global knowledge, the Sage despises the knowledge of details, all convention, all affection, all art.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Infinitely small is that by which he is still a man; infinitely great is that by which he is one with heaven.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Old fool [...] who eats without ploughing and dresses without spinning. You who claim that merely opening your lips [...] is enough to establish the distinction between good and evil.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Did I need you to teach me that the body my parents gave me is well-made? Do you think your compliments affect me, when I know you will denigrate me elsewhere more than you have flattered me here?
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Power does not last, and happiness does not consist, as [...] politicians would have us believe, in that.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
They farmed enough to eat and spun enough to clothe themselves. No one harmed another. That was the age when everything followed its natural course, in perfection.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Considered up close, [the great men] were men whom love of their own interests made act against their conscience and nature; men whose acts are all worthy of the deepest contempt.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
An existence, in the course of centuries, is but a horse's leap over a ditch. Whoever fails to satisfy all of nature's inclinations during this time understands nothing of what humanity truly is.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Those who have stolen a little are locked in prisons. Those who have stolen a lot are seated on thrones.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Wise is the one who considers yes and no from the center of the circumference, and lets the wheel turn. [...] Wise is the one who acts when circumstances are favorable and ceases to act when the time is right.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
All pursuit of an ideal is disastrous. [...] Every extreme position becomes false, all exaggerated obstinacy leads to ruin. Wisdom consists in staying in the center, neutral and indifferent.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
I desire neither reputation nor fortune, because these things do not bring happiness.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
The Sage takes for himself only what is strictly necessary and leaves the rest to others. He does not stir, he does not struggle. All agitation, all competition, is a sign of morbid passion.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
With his ears full of music and his mouth full of delicacies, the upstart is not happy. The worry of maintaining his position makes him like a beast of burden endlessly climbing the same slope.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
His life is spent standing guard over these useless heaps, in worry and in fear. [...] Is this not true misery? And those who suffer it do not feel it.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
Truly foolish is the one who tires their mind and wears out their body to reach such an end.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi
I have pulled the tiger's whiskers, and I am very lucky to have escaped its teeth.
4th century BC
Source: The Works of Zhuangzi